A Jazz Christmas Carol with the Alan Barnes Octet

The Friends of Melbourne Parish Church present The Alan Barnes Octet playing A Jazz Christmas Carol

Presented by: The Friends of Melbourne Parish Church

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0	DERBY: Melbourne Parish Church
P	Friday 5th December, 2025
N	7:00pm

Event information

Like the Dickens classic itself, Alan Barnes’s “Christmas Carol” has something for everyone. A family night out that is also a treat for the jazz connoisseur; it will delight anyone who loves music or literature – or just Christmas – taking the audience through the characters and scenes of this festive story. Readings from the original Dickens tell the story, and after each scene eight virtuoso musicians bring the characters and scenes to life, switching audiences from hilarity to pathos with a skill that would have done credit to Dickens himself!
A gruff baritone sax plays Scrooge, his lost love Belle is a lyrical alto, his clerk Bob Cratchit a cheery clarinet and Marley’s Ghost walks in the person of a swinging trombone. Just as Scrooge’s ghosts take him on a tour of his life, so the movements of this suite seemed each to have a benevolent presiding ghost, celebrating the spirit of jazz greats past and present.
The music and readings inspire the full range of Dickens’s imagination and emotion: from terror and remorse through to love and then irresistible joy: "God Bless Us Every One!"
“Barnes is a true Dickensian. He is a serious reader of the novels. It is a clear blunder of providence that he was born too late to appear in their pages!” Hot News
With:
Alan Barnes on saxophone, clarinet and bass clarinet
Bruce Adams on trumpet
Mark Nightingale on trombone
Robert Fowler on saxophones and clarinet
Karen Sharp on saxophones and clarinet
David Newton on piano
Simon Thorpe on bass
Clark Tracey on drums

Kindly sponsored by Alan Staley Building Contractors